By Kim Bell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Just weeks into his job, rookie cop Dakota DeClerck is one of many officers featured in a department video showing the police response after the May 16 tornado.
DeClerck, who graduated from the police academy in April, is shown carrying an injured person from the rubble and later removing downed tree limbs that blocked a 73-year-old disabled man’s path.
“Power lines were down,” DeClerck said in an interview on Monday. “Gas was leaking.”
DeClerck is part of a 2.5-minute video, a collection of clips taken from officers’ body cameras, released Monday by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
The tornado killed five people and injured dozens more. It tore through the city, damaging thousands of buildings.
The police footage, narrated by Chief Robert Tracy, shows officers arriving minutes after bricks trapped residents in homes. One man is buried under bricks in his basement, and gas is leaking.
“Hey, don’t panic,” an officer shouts at someone under a pile of debris. “Keep talking.”
Another officer climbs through a damaged window.
The tornado arrived before the department’s shift change that day, and some of the day watch officers ended up working more than 12 hours straight. It sparked a flurry of aid calls. Between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., the city received 1,537 calls to its 911 system — 700 of them between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. alone.
No officers were injured in the response.
To help compile the video, St. Louis police Sgt. Sean Mazzola watched hours of body cam footage. Many actions that day aren’t featured in the video, including officers maneuvering around downed power lines, said Mitch McCoy , a police spokesman.
And McCoy said some of the heroics aren’t captured by video. One officer, for example, rushed an injured child to the hospital in a squad car because an ambulance couldn’t get to the area as quickly. That officer, who wasn’t wearing a body camera, saved the child’s life, McCoy said.
DeClerck, 26, the probationary officer, served in the Army and studied engineering in college before joining the police academy. He is the first in his family to go into law enforcement.
DeClerck and his training officer, Kenneth Schmittgens, popped the two front tires on their police SUV as they rode over the debris.
DeClerck said so much stands out in his mind about arriving on the scene that day.
“Just seeing whole trees in the road, shingles on the road, faces of houses completely fallen in on themselves,” DeClerck said in an interview Monday.
He and Schmittgens helped carry three or four people to safety from demolished homes. They cleared debris from the road to help a woman who was on oxygen get from a wheelchair into a car.
“I don’t think any of us were fearful,” DeClerck said. “Just trying to do our job.”
DeClerck said nothing he learned at the academy specifically trained him for this EF-3 tornado response. He said he drew some from his Army service.
“And just being a concerned person,” he said. “I think anybody would want to help out in that situation.”
McCoy’s office posted the video on social media. He said the main goal is to share what officers did that day.
But he concedes the video could boost recruiting efforts as well.
“It may also inspire people who share the same courage and join the department,” McCoy added.
DeClerck said his role in the short video is exciting.
“I think it’s a cool experience,” he said. “But I am more focused on helping people out.”
—
© 2025 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Visit www.stltoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.